"Classical Live" was once Afternoon Concert

[LMcD]

As a Northerner myself, I can live with her accent. It's more the over-enthusiasm (think new Primary School Teacher to small children) and the foisting of atrocious choices of "music" on us - in between decent selections, which makes it even worse!.

Quite!

[vinteuil]

... in the Alker interview above, I was tickled by what I assume was a typo in the 'career determination' section -

"I used to buy The Enemy every week... "

(took me a moment or two to guess it might be the New Musical Express she meant... )

.

[oddoneout]

... in the Alker interview above, I was tickled by what I assume was a typo in the 'career determination' section -

"I used to buy The Enemy every week... "

(took me a moment or two to guess it might be the New Musical Express she meant... )

.

Ah, thank you for that, it had me completely stumped, and I assumed it was a reflection of my almost complete ignorance of that side of musical activity. As I said, straight transcription has its downsides - especially if no-one checks it before sharing it with the world...

I suppose to some, NME, or what it represented, was The Enemy?

[smittims]

Many thanks, vinteuil, for posting that link tothe podcast, which I found very interesting. Among other things,I was surprised to see that she is 41. From the sound of her voice I'd have said 17. It seems, partly from her own commenrts, that she has deliberately altered her accent over the years. and that what we hear on Radio 3 is a deliberate construct. I was interested also to see her say that she had 'an inverted snobbery towards southerners', and that her parents had 'quite a working class sensibility', her grandfather being from a 'really really working class family'.


I think perhaps I didn't make it clear that I was not criticising her accent. Both my parents were from working class families and my father , coincidentally, also became a headmaster. I've lived in Cheshire most of my life so I'm used to hearing that 'slightly-middle-England' northern voice. But I was struck by the way attitudes to accent have changed. A hundred years ago someone wanting to get on would,have to poshify their accent, like Leslie Titmuss in John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed,the village lad who becomes a millionaire Thatcherite cabinet minister. Now it's the other way round and maybe Penny Gore and Jonathan Swain worry that they don't sound 'plebeian' enough.

[LMcD]

Many thanks, vinteuil, for posting that link tothe podcast, which I found very interesting. Among other things,I was surprised to see that she is 41. From the sound of her voice I'd have said 17. It seems, partly from her own commenrts, that she has deliberately altered her accent over the years. and that what we hear on Radio 3 is a deliberate construct. I was interested also to see her say that she had 'an inverted snobbery towards southerners', and that her parents had 'quite a working class sensibility', her grandfather being from a 'really really working class family'.


I think perhaps I didn't make it clear that I was not criticising her accent. Both my parents were from working class families and my father , coincidentally, also became a headmaster. I've lived in Cheshire most of my life so I'm used to hearing that 'slightly-middle-England' northern voice. But I was struck by the way attitudes to accent have changed. A hundred years ago someone wanting to get on would,have to poshify their accent, like Leslie Titmuss in John Mortimer's Paradise Postponed,the village lad who becomes a millionaire Thatcherite cabinet minister. Now it's the other way round and maybe Penny Gore and Jonathan Swain worry that they don't sound 'plebeian' enough.

Was her father a toolmaker?

[AuntDaisy]

Was her father a toolmaker?

Or a (fennel) sausage to fate?

[oddoneout]

I see that the stacked sandwich has reappeared on the afternoon schedule. The BBC Singers' 100th Anniversary concert has been split up and interspersed between other items. Actually, having looked at yesterday's and tomorrow's schedule I see it's the sandwich-plus-serialisation approach that has been used, with the items from the one concert spread out over 3 days.
So, once again a thoughtfully constructed complete concert programme has been deconstructed to serve a completely different purpose - the arrogance, the ignorance, the pointlessness.

[smittims]

This is very sad, but not surprising. The practice of playing single movements of concertos,etc. shows a dreadful ignorance of musical structure and sense, similar to the insensitivity you have noted. I even wonder if Radio3 programme planners really understand what classical music is about.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is very sad, but not surprising. The practice of playing single movements of concertos,etc. shows a dreadful ignorance of musical structure and sense, similar to the insensitivity you have noted. I even wonder if Radio3 programme planners really understand what classical music is about.

There'd be as many Postmodernist answers to that question as you or I could take, smittims - none of them being on offer, even if available, from the composers.

[french frank]

I even wonder if Radio3 programme planners really understand what classical music is about.

I think more a question of them discussing yet again what they can do to make R3 more welcoming and to make classical music easier for wary newcomers. That is the Mission. Aim for the centre of the mass not the fringes.

[AuntDaisy]

I think more a question of them discussing yet again what they can do to make R3 more welcoming and to make classical music easier for wary newcomers. That is the Mission. Aim for the centre of the mass not the fringes.

Sad but true.
Fringes... Baroque Radical Right? Ockeghem Salvation Front?

That Sam J, he's not the new Händel Messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

[LMcD]

I think more a question of them discussing yet again what they can do to make R3 more welcoming and to make classical music easier for wary newcomers. That is the Mission. Aim for the centre of the mass not the fringes.

You're absolutely spot on, my friend! Wary newcomers are clearly more important than weary regulars.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is very sad, but not surprising. The practice of playing single movements of concertos,etc. shows a dreadful ignorance of musical structure and sense, similar to the insensitivity you have noted. I even wonder if Radio3 programme planners really understand what classical music is about.

Although it was not unknown for single movements of sonata form works to be played in late 18th and 19th century concerts it was not done on the scale Radio 3 does daily. Two examples today the finale of the Saint Saens Organ Symphony and rather unfortunately after a very big buildup from Georgia Mann what was announced as “the finale “ of Beethoven’s “greatest” Symphony the Seventh - actually it turned out to be further on in the link the “third movement” - I.e. the scherzo.

Any way neither the Saint-Saens nor the Beethoven gain much from being taken out of context. The thrilling tonal movement key scheme of the 7th symphony - 1 Cmajor / A major. - 2 Aminor/ A major -3 Fmajor / D major -4 A major just undermined by single movement extraction.

[Retune]

I suppose to some, NME, or what it represented, was The Enemy?

Mainly to the Melody Maker...

I think more a question of them discussing yet again what they can do to make R3 more welcoming and to make classical music easier for wary newcomers. That is the Mission. Aim for the centre of the mass not the fringes.

Couldn't they just 'curate' a Spotify playlist of single movements and short pieces and do away with R3 altogether? The daytime programming is barely distinguishable from this already.

[LMcD]

Currently being subjected to what is, to my ears, a pointless 'reimagining' by Anna Lapwood of the first of Britten's Sea Interludes.